Sao Paulo is known as the cultural capital of Brazil.
However Rio, although less “cutting edge”, is still vibrant with pure Brazilian soul, you can see this in its carnival, streetwise hustlers, girls rolling in the sand to be “milanesa” and some of the world’s most enchanting music.

This is the city in which the Hyenas do their thing.
Leo Teixeira, Luciano Rocha a.k.a Lurdinha and Fred Taylor formed the art collective in 2003, and are my favourite Rio performance artists. Brazil is a country with an already large and still expanding gay community, and the hyena’s projects work around many of the gay issues that arise in this country of colour and fantasy, but still macho ideals.

On being denied access into a group exhibition called Love House a group of artists decided to participate anyway and thus the Hyenas were born!
“Lurdinha was walking dem-naked in the hallways of this decadent senior motel in Lapa, downtown boemian artsy neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, interacting with the art instalations in the bedrooms, saying with her body “KISS MY ASS” .?That was the beginning of HYENAS.”

Another of their performances consisted of going to Fashion Rio dressed in miniskirts, carrying a plate with eggs, and asking people to drool on them (“drooling on the egg” means kissing ass in portuguese) …

I like the Hyenas because i think both them and their work are brazilian to the core; always good humoured, often colourful and extatically enthusiatic.
Check out their website for a better idea of their work
http://www.hyenas.art.br

They also have a design agency called Beee interactive http://www.beee.com.br

Leotex
Leo Teixeira having a drink

Tinko.

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